Colm O'Rourke vs. the GPA

[Hound]

I'd say cakes not far off the mark.  The Young Turks at the gaa took the soup and have moved from being an aggressive force for change to being a highly expensive prize poodle.

It's gas that it seems half the people think the GPA-GAA deal is bad because it gives the GPA too power and half thinks its bad because it removes any power from the GPA!

The deal works for the GPA because it gives them a voice at the table and guaranteed funding. It works for the GAA because as long as the deal stands it removes all chances of professionalism

[rrhf]

Well there are a number of professional GPA administrators and they are fundraising on the back of the wider GAA effort so I wouldnt be that happy.  I rank them among a number of full time administrators in the GAA who are apparently unneccessary cost centres to manage a championship and a league where with all their undoubted combined expertises they cant draw up a satisfactory schedule and rule book.
Is it time to abolish the vast majority of so called GAA civil servants and start again?

[Give and Go]

Well there are a number of professional GPA administrators and they are fundraising on the back of the wider GAA effort so I wouldnt be that happy.  I rank them among a number of full time administrators in the GAA who are apparently unneccessary cost centres to manage a championship and a league where with all their undoubted combined expertises they cant draw up a satisfactory schedule and rule book.
Is it time to abolish the vast majority of so called GAA civil servants and start again?

Amen to that.

[manfromdelmonte]

There are quite a few full time GAA employees who could be got rid of, and you wouldn't miss them

Especially in the games development area. I can name a few who never do any face to face coaching and I often wonder how they manage to get through each week doing so little

[Eamonnca1]

There are quite a few full time GAA employees who could be got rid of, and you wouldn't miss them

Especially in the games development area. I can name a few who never do any face to face coaching and I often wonder how they manage to get through each week doing so little

Care to name names?

[manfromdelmonte]

There are quite a few full time GAA employees who could be got rid of, and you wouldn't miss them

Especially in the games development area. I can name a few who never do any face to face coaching and I often wonder how they manage to get through each week doing so little

Care to name names?

I won't.
But I deal with a few of them across a few counties

[Jinxy]

Colm hits the nail on the head, as usual.

[Kickham csc]

The GPA have lost their focus.
For Example,
Internationally, they seem more interested in growing the GAA / hurling in the US, but are more interested in big grand gestures (Fenway / Notre Dame) rather than working with the grass roots who know what needs to be done (Need to get the GAA an NCAA recognized sport and get the GAA in Ireland / commercial partners to develop a sports scholarships business plan. The GAA would then take off in the US like laccross. And the really funny thing, laccross have a professional league, with an ESPN contract, so this would always have been the GPA's best route for pay.

At home, they complain about the stress of county footballers, and the level of commitment that is required, yet propose new structures that would increase the playing demands and squeeze the club game even more.

If I was in the GPA, I would start focusing on the club scene, that is where the real power lays.

If the club scene gets screwed even more, I'd expect a club Gaelic players to come into force, and if that ever happens, you'll have an association with a membership of 10's to 100's thousands, against a group of a couple hundred. Plus if a club GPA, ever got going and canvassed its members to boycott NFL games or championship games, then the current GPA influence would completely wane, because it's the punters to bring the moment into the game, not the county players.

They spend too much money on PR and flashy initiatives, and not enough on solving the real issues that are affecting the GAA

[Rossfan]

It's not the GPA's role to solve the " real issues facing the GAA".
What are the real issues?

[Crete Boom]

Colm hits the nail on the head, as usual.

Colm hit somebody's head with his elbow, as usual.

[johnneycool]

The GPA have lost their focus.
For Example,
Internationally, they seem more interested in growing the GAA / hurling in the US, but are more interested in big grand gestures (Fenway / Notre Dame) rather than working with the grass roots who know what needs to be done (Need to get the GAA an NCAA recognized sport and get the GAA in Ireland / commercial partners to develop a sports scholarships business plan. The GAA would then take off in the US like laccross. And the really funny thing, laccross have a professional league, with an ESPN contract, so this would always have been the GPA's best route for pay.

At home, they complain about the stress of county footballers, and the level of commitment that is required, yet propose new structures that would increase the playing demands and squeeze the club game even more.

If I was in the GPA, I would start focusing on the club scene, that is where the real power lays.

If the club scene gets screwed even more, I'd expect a club Gaelic players to come into force, and if that ever happens, you'll have an association with a membership of 10's to 100's thousands, against a group of a couple hundred. Plus if a club GPA, ever got going and canvassed its members to boycott NFL games or championship games, then the current GPA influence would completely wane, because it's the punters to bring the moment into the game, not the county players.

They spend too much money on PR and flashy initiatives, and not enough on solving the real issues that are affecting the GAA

The GPA are unashamedly only focused on the intercounty game, they don't give a toss about club players and if anything have sought to put forward plans to expand the intercounty game, marginalising the club players even more!

[Rossfan]

How many non County players have joined it or applied to?

[Croí na hÉireann]

That's like asking how many mechanics have applied to join the INMO.

[Zulu]

The GPA have lost their focus.
For Example,
Internationally, they seem more interested in growing the GAA / hurling in the US, but are more interested in big grand gestures (Fenway / Notre Dame) rather than working with the grass roots who know what needs to be done (Need to get the GAA an NCAA recognized sport and get the GAA in Ireland / commercial partners to develop a sports scholarships business plan. The GAA would then take off in the US like laccross. And the really funny thing, laccross have a professional league, with an ESPN contract, so this would always have been the GPA's best route for pay.

At home, they complain about the stress of county footballers, and the level of commitment that is required, yet propose new structures that would increase the playing demands and squeeze the club game even more.

If I was in the GPA, I would start focusing on the club scene, that is where the real power lays.

If the club scene gets screwed even more, I'd expect a club Gaelic players to come into force, and if that ever happens, you'll have an association with a membership of 10's to 100's thousands, against a group of a couple hundred. Plus if a club GPA, ever got going and canvassed its members to boycott NFL games or championship games, then the current GPA influence would completely wane, because it's the punters to bring the moment into the game, not the county players.

They spend too much money on PR and flashy initiatives, and not enough on solving the real issues that are affecting the GAA

The GPA are unashamedly only focused on the intercounty game, they don't give a toss about club players and if anything have sought to put forward plans to expand the intercounty game, marginalising the club players even more!

The biggest problem club players have is the current IC season and that is the format the GAA, not the GPA, have come up with. The clubs biggest ememy is themselves and their inaction, not the inter county players.

[Rossfan]

That's like asking how many mechanics have applied to join the INMO.

County and non County players are all Gaelic Players.
Mechanics are not nurses.
I'd have expected better from you Croì